Python parser

The Python log parser (available in syslog-ng PE version 7.0.2 and later) allows you to write your own parser in Python. Practically, that way you can process the log message (or parts of the log message) any way you need. For example, you can import external Python modules to process the messages, query databases to enrich the messages with additional data, and many other things.

The following points apply to using Python blocks in syslog-ng PE in general:

Python parsers and template functions are available in syslog-ng PE version 7.0.2 and later.

Python destinations and sources are available in syslog-ng PE version 7.0.11 and later.

Supported Python versions: 2.7.

The Python block must be a top-level block in the syslog-ng PE configuration file.

If you store the Python code in a separate Python file and only include it in the syslog-ng PE configuration file, make sure that the PYTHON_PATH environment variable includes the path to the Python file, and export the PYTHON_PATH environment variable. For example, if you start syslog-ng PE manually from a terminal and you store your Python files in the /opt/syslog-ng/etc directory, use the following command: export PYTHONPATH=/opt/syslog-ng/etc

In production, when syslog-ng PE starts on boot, you must configure your startup script to include the Python path. The exact method depends on your operating system. For recent Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, and CentOS distributions that use systemd, the systemctl command sources the /etc/sysconfig/syslog-ng file before starting syslog-ng PE. (On openSUSE and SLES, /etc/sysconfig/syslog file.) Append the following line to the end of this file: PYTHONPATH="<path-to-your-python-file>", for example, PYTHONPATH="/opt/syslog-ng/etc"

The Python object is initiated every time when syslog-ng PE is started or reloaded.

Caution:

If you reload syslog-ng PE, existing Python objects are destroyed, therefore the context and state information of Python blocks is lost. Log rotation and updating the configuration of syslog-ng PE typically involves a reload.

The Python block can contain multiple Python functions.

Using Python code in syslog-ng PE can significantly decrease the performance of syslog-ng PE, especially if the Python code is slow. In general, the features of syslog-ng PE are implemented in C, and are faster than implementations of the same or similar features in Python.

Validate and lint the Python code before using it. The syslog-ng PE application does not do any of this.

Python error messages are available in the internal() source of syslog-ng PE.

You can access the name-value pairs of syslog-ng PE directly through a message object or a dictionary.

To help debugging and troubleshooting your Python code, you can send log messages to the internal() source of syslog-ng PE. For details, see Logging from your Python code.

Support disclaimer

Using Python in syslog-ng PE is recommended only if you are familiar with both Python and syslog-ng PE. Product support applies only to syslog-ng PE: that is, until the entry point of the Python code and passing the specified arguments to the Python code. One Identity is not responsible for the quality, resource requirements, or any bugs in the Python code, nor any syslog-ng PE crashes, message losses, or any other damage caused by the improper use of this feature, unless explicitly stated in a contract with One Identity.

Declaration

Python parsers consist of two parts. The first is a syslog-ng PE parser object that you use in your syslog-ng PE configuration, for example, in the log path. This parser references a Python class, which is the second part of the Python parsers. The Python class processes the log messages it receives, and can do virtually anything that you can code in Python.

Methods of the python() parser

The init (self, options) method (optional)

The syslog-ng PE application initializes Python objects only when it is started or reloaded. That means it keeps the state of internal variables while syslog-ng PE is running. The init method is executed as part of the initialization. You can perform any initialization steps that are necessary for your parser to work. For example, if you want to perform a lookup from a file or a database, you can open the file or connect to the database here, or you can initialize a counter that you will increase in the parse() method.

The return value of the init() method must be True. If it returns False, or raises an exception, syslog-ng PE will not start.

options: This optional argument contains the contents of the options() parameter of the parser object as a Python dict.

The parse(self, log_message) method

The parse() method processes the log messages it receives, and can do virtually anything that you can code in Python. This method is required, otherwise syslog-ng PE will not start.

The return value of the parse() method must be True. If it returns False, or raises an exception, syslog-ng PE will drop the message.

To reference a name-value pair or a macro in the Python code, use the following format. For example, if the first argument in the definition of the function is called log-message, the value of the HOST macro is log-message['HOST'], and so on. (The log-message contains the entire log message (not just the text body) in a structure similar to a Python dict, but it is actually an object.)

You can define new name-value pairs in the Python function. For example, if the first argument in the definition of the function is called log-message, you can create a new name-value pair like this: log_message["new-macro-name"]="value". This is useful when you parse a part of the message from Python, or lookup a value based on data extracted from the log message.

Note that the names of the name-value pairs are case-sensitive. If you create a new name-value pair called new-macro-name in Python, and want to reference it in another part of the syslog-ng PE configuration file (for example, in a template), use the ${new-macro-name} macro.

To list all available keys (names of name-value pairs), use the log_message.keys() function.

The deinit(self) method (optional)

This method is executed when syslog-ng PE is stopped or reloaded.

Caution:

If you reload syslog-ng PE, existing Python objects are destroyed, therefore the context and state information of Python blocks is lost. Log rotation and updating the configuration of syslog-ng PE typically involves a reload.

Example: Parse loggen logs

The following sample code parses the messages of the loggen tool (for details, see The loggen manual page). The following is a sample loggen message:

The syslog-ng PE parser object references the LoggenParser class and passes a set of regular expressions to parse the loggen messages. The init() method of the LoggenParser class compiles these expressions into a pattern. The parse method uses these patterns to extract the fields of the message into name-value pairs. The destination template of the syslog-ng PE log statement uses the extracted fields to format the output message.

Example: Parse Windows eventlogs in Python - performance

The following example uses regular expressions to process Windows log messages received in XML format from the syslog-ng Agent for Windows application. The parser extracts different fields from messages received from the Security and the Application eventlog containers. Using the following configuration file, syslog-ng PE could process about 25000 real-life Windows log messages per second.

Parsing enterprise-wide message model (EWMM) messages

The ewmm-parser() can be used to parse messages sent by another syslog-ng host using the enterprise-wide message model (EWMM) format. Available in version 7.0.9 and later. Note that usually you do not have to use this parser directly, because the default-network-drivers() source automatically parses such messages.

Declaration

The sudo-parser() is actually a reusable configuration snippet configured to parse sudo messages. For details on using or writing such configuration snippets, see Reusing configuration blocks. You can find the source of this configuration snippet on GitHub.

prefix()

Synopsis:

prefix()

Description: Insert a prefix before the name part of the parsed name-value pairs to help further processing. For example:

To insert the my-parsed-data. prefix, use the prefix(my-parsed-data.) option.

To refer to a particular data that has a prefix, use the prefix in the name of the macro, for example, ${my-parsed-data.name} .

If you forward the parsed messages using the IETF-syslog protocol, you can insert all the parsed data into the SDATA part of the message using the prefix(.SDATA.my-parsed-data.) option.

Names starting with a dot (for example, .example) are reserved for use by syslog-ng PE. If you use such a macro name as the name of a parsed value, it will attempt to replace the original value of the macro (note that only soft macros can be overwritten, see Hard versus soft macros for details). To avoid such problems, use a prefix when naming the parsed values, for example, prefix(my-parsed-data.)

By default, sudo-parser() uses the sudo. prefix. To modify it, use the following format:

Declaration

The iptables-parser() is actually a reusable configuration snippet configured to parse iptables messages. For details on using or writing such configuration snippets, see Reusing configuration blocks. You can find the source of this configuration snippet on GitHub.

prefix()

Synopsis:

prefix()

Description: Insert a prefix before the name part of the parsed name-value pairs to help further processing. For example:

To insert the my-parsed-data. prefix, use the prefix(my-parsed-data.) option.

To refer to a particular data that has a prefix, use the prefix in the name of the macro, for example, ${my-parsed-data.name} .

If you forward the parsed messages using the IETF-syslog protocol, you can insert all the parsed data into the SDATA part of the message using the prefix(.SDATA.my-parsed-data.) option.

Names starting with a dot (for example, .example) are reserved for use by syslog-ng PE. If you use such a macro name as the name of a parsed value, it will attempt to replace the original value of the macro (note that only soft macros can be overwritten, see Hard versus soft macros for details). To avoid such problems, use a prefix when naming the parsed values, for example, prefix(my-parsed-data.)

By default, iptables-parser() uses the iptables. prefix. To modify it, use the following format: